Here's why NASA is ramming a spacecraft into an asteroid

[Cosmik Debris]

Lol, TIL that the generally accepted age of the earth is a leftist theory...

Recorded history is about five thousand years, homo sapiens have existed for about 300 000 years, an extinction level event that most likely wiped out the dinosaurs happened 66 million years ago. Events of lesser magnitude are predicted to happen more often, please explain using your extensive actuarial knowledge how such an event could never happen again?

Oh, it will happen again. There are several asteroid near misses every decade. None are detected before action would be too late or until after the miss. If an extinction size asteroid hits you won't even know or if you do know it hit you'll die soon anyway. Nothing you can do about it so why worry?

Timeline of known close approaches less than one lunar distance from Earth. For reference, the radius of Earth Geosynchronous satellites have an orbit with semi-major axis. Asteroid 2022 EB 5 is noteworthy in that it was detected before impact. This is only the 5th successfully predicted impact in history. Every year, dozens of asteroids impact Earth with enough force to be detected by ...

List of asteroid close approaches to Earth in 2022 - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[RonSwanson]

The period between car accidents can be measured in seconds. The period between asteroid extinction events is measured in geological eras.

Would you spend big money on a walk in vault you may never need for your small change?

That's actually a great analogy.

 

[Cray]

Oh, it will happen again. There are several asteroid near misses every decade. None are detected before action would be too late or until after the miss. If an extinction size asteroid hits you won't even know or if you do know it hit you'll die soon anyway. Nothing you can do about it so why worry?

Am not worried, but I am intrigued by the possibility that we might be able to avert our own fate.

How do you know there is nothing we can do about it if we don't at least try? Science is about discovery, yet you are happy to just accept the possibility that life might be annihilated by just shrugging your shoulders and saying "nothing we can do".

 

[Cray]

The period between car accidents can be measured in seconds. The period between asteroid extinction events is measured in geological eras.

Would you spend big money on a walk in vault you may never need for your small change?

The cost of me losing my small change is the total amount of my small change, the cost of doing nothing about a potential extinction event could be most of humanity. I think investment in learning about space and space missions is a net benefit for humanity, even if we never need to avert an asteroid impact, we will still learn things. What is your alternative to how this money should be spent?

 

[Willie Trombone]

Was trying to recall what this reminded me of...

16:40 in...

 

[Moosedrool]

But what if the moon starts falling?

Who’s gonna deal with the nano aliens and the white dwarf then?

 

[saor]

The period between car accidents can be measured in seconds. The period between asteroid extinction events is measured in geological eras.

Would you spend big money on a walk in vault you may never need for your small change?

The difference is the risk profile though. The extremely unlikely event with maximal consequences for the most people should surely be at the very least considered and planned against vs. the extremely unlikely event with minimal consequences. Having a vault doesn't really matter either way, being able to deflect a possible extinction event seems like it matters a whole lot more.

 

[Bigjay84]

I'm thinking it's because Bruce Willis has got Parkinson's

 

[rvZA]

I do not think they want to make it publicly known, but that asteroid is probably on course to hit earth and blow us all into oblivion. No one crashes billions of Dollars for nothing into nothing just for test purposes. This is probably a last ditch effort to save earth.

If you see a news article about all the rich folks, presidents, etc., taking a space trip with Musk and Branson real soon, we all know that we are f***ked.

 

[Okty]

I do not think they want to make it publicly known, but that asteroid is probably on course to hit earth and blow us all into oblivion. No one crashes billions of Dollars for nothing into nothing just for test purposes. This is probably a last ditch effort to save earth.

If you see a news article about all the rich folks, presidents, etc., taking a space trip with Musk and Branson real soon, we all know that we are f***ked.

Sheet, rvZA actually has me worried now...

 

[grok]

I'm all for discovering new things but wouldn't a couple of high intensity lasers be as effective to nudge a wayward asteroid onto a less collisiony path if started early enough? Think of solar sails, spacecraft moved by the pressure from sunlight, but concentrated and for a long enough period.

 

[WollieVerstege]

The difference is the risk profile though. The extremely unlikely event with maximal consequences for the most people should surely be at the very least considered and planned against vs. the extremely unlikely event with minimal consequences. Having a vault doesn't really matter either way, being able to deflect a possible extinction event seems like it matters a whole lot more.

On top of that it does not even have to be an extinction level event.

The economic cost of a smallish astroid (like Vredefort or Meteor Crater, AZ) hitting just New York city will be multiple times more expensive than planning and executing a plan to divert such an astroid. Even if we had ample notice and was able to relocate most of the people, the ensuing chaos will wipe trillions of the global financial system and will take decades to recover.

 

[Cosmik Debris]

Am not worried, but I am intrigued by the possibility that we might be able to avert our own fate.

How do you know there is nothing we can do about it if we don't at least try? Science is about discovery, yet you are happy to just accept the possibility that life might be annihilated by just shrugging your shoulders and saying "nothing we can do".

I'm a realist. I don't see the need to spend the big money to build a walk in vault to keep my small change in just in case someone wants to steal it. Tough if they do.

And this is another reason:

Asteroid 2022 EB 5 is noteworthy in that it was detected before impact. This is only the 5th successfully predicted impact in history. Every year, dozens of asteroids impact Earth with enough force to be detected by ...

/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_asteroid_close_approaches_to_Earth_in_2022

 

[Cosmik Debris]

The cost of me losing my small change is the total amount of my small change, the cost of doing nothing about a potential extinction event could be most of humanity. I think investment in learning about space and space missions is a net benefit for humanity, even if we never need to avert an asteroid impact, we will still learn things. What is your alternative to how this money should be spent?

Would you spend 1m times the amount of your small change to ensure your small change isn't lost? We already know how to build rockets. There is no new tech in this particular mission.

 

[OhYeah84]

South Africa is likely to happen to us first.

We will be in the dark...no ways that asteroid would find the country.

 

[Cosmik Debris]

The difference is the risk profile though. The extremely unlikely event with maximal consequences for the most people should surely be at the very least considered and planned against vs. the extremely unlikely event with minimal consequences. Having a vault doesn't really matter either way, being able to deflect a possible extinction event seems like it matters a whole lot more.

What is the statistical probability of suffering an extinction event before mankind makes itself extinct anyway?

 

[saor]

What is the statistical probability of suffering an extinction event before mankind makes itself extinct anyway?

We also have increasingly more technology orbiting the earth. It's not just about preventing extinction, it's about preventing your gps being down or an impact causing a bunch of space debris that hinders launches for a few years. There's a bunch of reasons we might want to deter things of various sizes from getting too close to earth.

 

[Cray]

Would you spend 1m times the amount of your small change to ensure your small change isn't lost? We already know how to build rockets. There is no new tech in this particular mission.

There is new science to be learned, your small change analogy is fallacious. We are spending a lot to enhance our scientific knowledge in an area of science that might save humanity, the value of humanity is not "small change", despite how little you care for its survival after you shuffle off this mortal coil.

 

[Cray]

I'm a realist. I don't see the need to spend the big money to build a walk in vault to keep my small change in just in case someone wants to steal it. Tough if they do.

That analogy is really doing some heavy lifting, you may regard the future of humanity as valueless as small change, others don't, thankfully you aren't the one making these decisions,

And this is another reason:

Asteroid 2022 EB 5 is noteworthy in that it was detected before impact. This is only the 5th successfully predicted impact in history. Every year, dozens of asteroids impact Earth with enough force to be detected by ...

/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_asteroid_close_approaches_to_Earth_in_2022

So you are saying that because we haven't predicted a lot of impacts in the past, we should stop trying to detect future ones rather than to improve our ability to detect them?

 

[ForceFate]

I do not think they want to make it publicly known, but that asteroid is probably on course to hit earth and blow us all into oblivion. No one crashes billions of Dollars for nothing into nothing just for test purposes. This is probably a last ditch effort to save earth.

If you see a news article about all the rich folks, presidents, etc., taking a space trip with Musk and Branson real soon, we all know that we are f***ked.

NASA does tests all the time. Some of their decisions may seem trivial to average Joe Public but indeed they do carry out tests.